The same great sound in a smaller and more affordable package

The exaSound e12 DAC is a stylish, small form factor component designed to address the explosion of file–based high resolution audio (HRA) playback. As with the e22 and e28, exclusive drivers developed in-house, galvanic isolation and our proprietary ZeroJitter™ asynchronous USB interface endows the e12 with what it takes to compete with the best sounding DACs on the market today.

The premium 8 channel, 32 bit ES9018S reference DAC chip from ESS Technology is configured in the e12 as a stereo converter, with four internal DAC channels per left/right side. By utilizing the channels in a parallel topology, conversion monotonicity is improved and noise is reduced.

The e12 was created to natively support DSD64 (1x), DSD128 (2x) and DSD256 (4x), along with a maximum PCM sampling rate of 384 kHz at 32 bits. Though able to handle all contemporary high resolution formats, exceptional results are also obtained when the e12 is used with “Red Book” CD–quality files.

The native high sampling rate support accommodates software up–sampling to 384 kHz or DSD256, for a more euphonious presentation.

New software features in the driver include auto start, auto–power down, and a maximum volume limiter. The limiter allows the e12 to directly drive a power amplifier while protecting loudspeakers from overloads.

A total of seven linear power conditioning stages insure that noise does not compromise transparency, while a tightly controlled, 0.13 ps master clock and triple oscillators architecture minimizes time–smearing jitter artifacts. Further noise immunity is provided by galvanic isolation between the proprietary asynchronous USB ZeroJitter™ Interface and the downstream audio conversion circuitry, eliminating ground loops while blocking interference generated by computer connections.